Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Twyford: Why It Happens
Leave your motor and ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Around Twyford, finding it before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. The rest of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Diesel goes to your engine — yet plenty of current diesels seen about Twyford and South Down carry a second fluid as well. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the gas to clean them, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the pump goes on constantly. Far less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Twyford: how it happens
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Finches Lane before work, or in the car park at Phoenix Inn on the way home.
Then, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip once it has started. It's seconds, be it in Northfields or right in the centre of Twyford.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A few seconds is all these take — so check them before you pour anything, on a driveway in Compton End or a forecourt in Twyford.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue ones are often blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- Many vehicles give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — plenty of vehicles show which belongs in each inlet right there.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Shawford, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
On the day the light appears — anywhere you are around Hampshire — a routine to follow.
- Pull in on level, engine off, with time to spare — not rushing on the side of Hazeley Road.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have located your filler and read the cap.
- Both under a single flap? Then confirm the cap on your diesel side is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Finish once that tank fills or the bottle is empty; before that, pour gently through the built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check again. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Twyford?
Short order, then. First: your motor remains off. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as the ignition is switched on — and so keep it off. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — Sainsbury's, BP or any other — the staff will normally help push the vehicle clear, if you ask. If you're on your own driveway around Twyford, leave the car where it sits.
Where the motor has been run by now, stop somewhere safe and switch it off. On the M3, under a mile from Twyford, that means the next junction. A short hop across Twyford is a smaller job than a run towards Winchester, under 5 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around Twyford, and what happens next
Our van comes to your car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside Twyford Parish Hall, or outside Twyford St Mary's Church of England Primary School. Which liquid went in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask since those replies set the work and quote. Nobody heads out before you have had our quote over the phone.
Then your tank is drained and the fuel system cleaned thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why that matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Once the filter is cleaned — or renewed, if needed — clean diesel is added, and finally the vehicle is tested. The engine is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs correctly, all before our engineers leave.
If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Twyford, for a moment
Twyford is a village situated on the River Itchen in Hampshire, with a low elevation of around 28 metres above sea level. Twyford lies close to the city of Winchester, approximately 3 miles to the south, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Northfields, Shawford, and Compton. Twyford has a population of around 1206 residents, who mostly live in detached houses. Twyford is located in the South East region of England, about 61.5 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Twyford included
Shawford and Compton are among the towns near Twyford, a village, that the same teams cover, throughout SO postcodes. A postcode starting SO21 1 gets the van to you fastest.
The vehicle remains where it is. Wherever it sits — beside Twyford Community Centre, on a lay-by heading to Ballard Close, at home — that is where it gets cleared. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Twyford Roman villa, ring and ask rather than guessing.
For Twyford motorists, the short version
Pour nothing until you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere around Hampshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank all the same — and so leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.